Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions

SAK

Full name	Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions
Native name	Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö Finlands Fackförbunds Centralorganisation
Founded	1969
Members	1 million+
Affiliation	ITUC, NFS, ETUC
Key people	Jarkko Eloranta, president
Office location	Helsinki, Finland
Country	Finland
Website	www.sak.fi

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, usually referred to by the acronym SAK (Finnish: Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö, Swedish: Finlands Fackförbunds Centralorganisation, FFC) is the largest trade union confederation in Finland. Its member organisations have a total of more than one million members, which makes up about one fifth of the country's population.

The other two Finnish trade unions confederations are the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK) and the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals in Finland (AKAVA). The most important negotiating partner of SAK is the Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto/Finlands Näringsliv (the Confederation of Finnish Industries, EK), which represents the majority of Finnish employers.

SAK has been challenged by Yleinen työttömyyskassa, an independent unemployment insurance institute, which charges lower fees than some of the trade unions, while not providing the other services of a Finnish trade union.

The current SAK was founded in 1969 as the Finnish Federation of Trade Unions (SAK 1930–1969), controlled by SKDL and TPSL, and the Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ 1960–1969), controlled by SDP, settled their disputes and merged. The SAK, however, considers itself the continuation of the first Finnish central organisation, the Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ 1907–1930).

SAK has received a lot attention for spending its members' money to mudslinging on behalf of Social Democratic Party. SAK's 2007 television advertisements were found so defaming that SAK had to withdraw the campaign. Even some SDP members expressed "disgust".

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Wikipedia